Christian Apocrypha and Early Christian Literature

(Ron) #1

61 But when the day was now dawning I arose first, and with me Verus and Andronicus, and we
saw at the door of the house which we had taken a great number of bugs standing, and while we
wondered at the great sight of them, and all the brethren were roused up because of them, John
continued sleeping. And when he was awaked we declared to him what we had seen. And he sat
up on the bed and looked at them and said: Since ye have well behaved yourselves in hearkening
to my rebuke, come unto your place. And when he had said this, and risen from the bed, the bugs
running from the door hasted to the bed and climbed up by the legs thereof and disappeared into
the joints. And John said again: This creature hearkened unto the voice of a man, and abode by
itself and was quiet and trespassed not; but we which hear the voice and commandments of God
disobey and are light-minded: and for how long?
62 After these things we came to Ephesus: and the brethren there, who had for a long time
known that John was coming, ran together to the house of Andronicus (where also he came to
lodge), handling his feet and laying his hands upon their own faces and kissing them (and many
rejoiced even to touch his vesture, and were healed by touching the clothes of the holy apostle.
[So the Latin, which has this section; the Greek has: so that they even touched his garments).]
63 And whereas there was great love and joy unsurpassed among the brethren, a certain one, a
messenger of Satan, became enamoured of Drusiana, though he saw and knew that she was the
wife of Andronicus. To whom many said: It is not possible for thee to obtain that woman, seeing
that for a long time she has even separated herself from her husband for godliness' sake. Art thou
only ignorant that Andronicus, not being aforetime that which now he is, a God-fearing man,
shut her up in a tomb, saying: Either I must have thee as the wife whom I had before, or thou
shalt die. And she chose rather to die than to do that foulness. If, then, she would not consent, for
godliness' sake, to cohabit with her lord and husband, but even persuaded him to be of the same
mind as herself, will she consent to thee desiring to be her seducer? depart from this madness
which hath no rest in thee: give up this deed which thou canst not bring to accomplishment.
64 But his familiar friends saying these things to him did not convince him, but with
shamelessness he courted her with messages; and when he learnt the insults and disgraces which
she returned, he spent his life in melancholy (or better, she, when she learnt of this disgrace and
insult at his hand, spent her life in heaviness). And after two days Drusiana took to her bed from
heaviness, and was in a fever and said: Would that I had not now come home to my native place,
I that have become an offence to a man ignorant of godliness! for if it were one who was filled
with the word of God, he would not have gone to such a pitch of madness. But now (therefore)
Lord, since I am become the occasion of a blow unto a soul devoid of knowledge, set me free
from this chain and remove me unto thee quickly. And in the presence of John, who knew
nothing at all of such a matter, Drusiana departed out of life not wholly happy, yea, even
troubled because of the spiritual hurt of the man.
65 But Andronicus, grieved with a secret grief, mourned in his soul, and wept openly, so that
John checked him often and said to him: Upon a better hope hath Drusiana removed out of this
unrighteous life. And Andronicus answered him: Yea, I am persuaded of it, O John, and I doubt
not at all in regard of trust in my God: but this very thing do I hold fast, that she departed out of
life pure.
66 And when she was carried forth, John took hold on Andronicus, and now that he knew the
cause, he mourned more than Andronicus. And he kept silence, considering the provocation of

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